HTC Focuses on Being Picture Perfect

BARCELONA — After making calls, taking photos is the most popular thing to do on a mobile phone. So wouldn’t optimizing phones for picture-taking seem like a good way to stand out in a sea of identical phones?

That’s the thinking behind HTC’s new One range, launched at the Mobile World Congress Sunday night. According to HTC CEO Peter Chou, some 45 billion mobile photos were uploaded to Facebook last year. In a crowded and largely hard-to-differentiate market, HTC has opted to make the camera the key feature.

“HTC seized the opportunity to give a great camera experience,” he said. “This is a huge opportunity for us.”

He dismissed the threat from Nokia’s new 41 MP Symbian-based 808 phone. “I think our camera is so much better,” he said. “We are the fastest camera. Our start-up time, our autofocus time, it is so fast. We will give you the best image even in the worst conditions. We will let you do video and photo at the same time.”

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